Seal-lock



(Model) 0. E. DAVIS.

SEAL LOGK.

No. 352,522. PatentedNovLlfi, 1886.

MZUESSES Alia, W990,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.-

OHARLES E. DAVIS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SEAL-LOG K.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 352,522, dated November 16, 1886.

Application filed March 15, 1886. Serial No. 195,350. tModcl.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES E. DAVIS, of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Seal-Locks, of which the following is a description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side view of myimproved lock. Fig. 2 is a front view thereof. Fig.3 is a front view of the same when unlocked, and Fig. 4. is an end view.

My invention relates to seal locks designed especially to lock and seal railway f reight-cars, although it may of course be used upon any other structure.

In order to protect themselves so far as possible from losses from the acts of thieves, and to facilitate the early detection of robberies when committed, the railway companies use to look their freight-cars either a lock and a seal independent of each other or a seal-lock. In the scal-locks the seals, of whatever material composed, are arranged either so they must be destroyed before the lock can be unlocked or by the unlocking of the lock. The seals in some cases afford a little protection against the breaking into a car; but their main purpose is to discover to the employs when and where the car was entered, which is ascertained by frequent examinations of the seals. The locks now used are all forms of key-locks, of which there are no forms (except, perhaps, avery expensive form) which afford a sufficient protection against these depredations. The robberies still continue, and the railway companies suffer great loss in consequence thereof. A look affording greater securityis needed for this and other analogous uses, in combination with a seal which shall, so far as is pos sible, protect the look from being unlocked,

. thereto.

frangible seal held in position by the locking of the lock, and covering, and by its opacity concealing, the registeringpoints of the permutation devices; second, in the combination of a permutation-lock with an opaque frangible self-luminous seal adapted to beheld in position by the locking of the lock, and covering and concealing the registering points of the permutation devices, and by its luminosity showing at night whether or not said seal remains in its posit-ion and condition as an effective protection against the unlocking of the lock; third, in the various sub-combinations herein described, and pointed out in the claims;

I am aware of the patent to Wheeler and Laft'rey, No. 160,493, and I do not desire to claim as my invention anything therein shown or described. Their invention, however, is only adapted to a self lockingkey-lock, which,

as before stated, affords inadequate protection.

or body, a, to the remote end of which the shackle is pivoted.

It is not necessary here to explain the look ing mechanism further than to say that it is locked by turning the small knob or thumbpiece d, and unlocked by turning the said knob so as to bring the registering-marks on the dial D to the registering'point or mark 61 upon the lock-body to a known combination, in the manner of all permutation-locks.

The dial D, which is provided with numbered lines or registering-points, is set flush with the face of the look. A mark or registering-point, d, is made upon the face of the look, and the dial and mark are so arranged 5 with reference to the other parts of the device that when the seal is in place it covers said mark and about half of the dial adjacent Upon the sides of the body a of the look I provide the flanges a a, having the in- I CC ternal grooves, a a, and at the inner ends of the grooves I prefer to place the shoulders at a".

B represents the shackle or bail, which is pivoted to the ears I) b on the body of the lock. The pivot end of said bail is made eccentric or elongated, so that when open, as shown by the dotted lines in Fig. 1, it is on a leveljvith the face of the lock, but when closed the end b projects outwardly beyond said face.

The seal 0 is a hat piece of some frangible material, preferably glass, and is adapted to fit into the grooves a a and lie between the shoulders 11 a and the end of the look. This seal is made opaque, either by painting it or in any suitable manner. Then the seal is in place, as shown in Fig. 2, it covers and 0011- ceals the lower part of the dial D and the registering-mark (1. Upon closing the shackle B and turning the thumb piece d, thereby locking the Lock, the end I) of the shackle holds the seal in.

It is not designed to always place the registering-mark d below the center of the dial; but it is the design to place said mark at dif- M ferentpoints on the lock, but always,of course,

where the seal, when in place, will cover it, and by its opacity conceal its location. Thus one who knows the combination of the lock cannot open it without breaking the seal, since he cannot locate the registeringpoints.

. As a further advantage, and as a means for rendering the seal opaque, I prefer to paint said seal with some phosphorescent orsel f-luminous paint. The advantages of the addition of this element oflu minosit-y to the seal are numerous. For example, it enables the conductor of the train to stand by the side of the track at night panies ,using the above-described look, a shipping ticket, E, may be combined therewith. This ticket I design shall contain on one side the number of the car, date, place of shipment,

&c., and on the other side words in the nature of a. receipt of the car and indicating the condition of the seal when received, to be signed by the party to whom the car is delivered. This ticket is placed and held beneath the seal 0, as shown in Fig. 3, where it is protected from rain and dirt by the seal. To further protect the seal and the ticket and locking mechanism, I extend around the upper edge of the lock the raised flange 00", which sheds the rain and prevents it from getting into the lock or under the seal.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of a permutation-lock with an opaque frangible seal held securely in position by the locking ofthe lock,and serving to cover, and by its opacity to conceal, the mg istering-pointsof the perm utation devices,sub

stantially as and for the purpose specified.-

2. The combination of a permutation-lock with an opaque frangible self-luminous seal held securely in place by thelocking of thelock, and serving to cover, and by its opacity to con ceal, the registering-points of the permutation devices, and by its luminosity to show in the nighttime the effective continuance of such concealment, substantially as described.

3. The combination of a permutation-lock having the dial thereof set flush with the face of the lock, grooved flanges along the sides of body of the lock, and a shackle, with pivoted end made eccentric, with an opaque frangible seal, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

OHS. E. DAVIS.

Witnesses:

E. L. THURSTON, GEO. H. GLAZIER. 

